Let me be upfront and say anyone expecting "The Hub" to be
as epic as all its "Level 8 Clearance" promos implied it was going to be was
surely disappointed. But despite my early misgivings, I ended up liking the
episode a lot, although probably not for the reasons the showrunners hoped. But
what most strikes me most is that this episode illustrates why Agents of SHIELD still feels… off.

But first, the plot: Some evil dudes in Ossetania (I think?
whatever) have developed a Doomsday Machine (even Ward makes fun of the name,
thank god) that sets off enemy munitions from afar. Obviously, that's bad juju.
So SHIELD — not just Agent Coulson, but SHIELD itself — sends in the elite team
of Ward and Fitz, an agent who's never been on a field mission, but will know
how to disable the device.

Shenanigans ensue. Of course Fitz is nervous and talks too
much but shows unexpected resourcefulness in tough situations, surprising Ward;
while back at the SHIELD HQ called the Hub, of course Skye hacks into the most
secure computers in the world in three minutes and discovers that Ward and Fitz
have no extraction planned because it's a suicide mission. And of course Skye
tells Agent Coulson about this, and Agent Coulson is pissed at SHIELD even
after saying "Trust the system!" all episode, and makes his own extraction
plan. It's not hard to see where the story is going, and it follows the
requisite steps exactly.

So the overarching plot isn't anything special, but what this
episode does do exceptionally well is illustrate Agents of SHIELD's biggest problems. Now, remember, I liked "The
Hub" overall, so keep this is mind while I do a bit of criticizing:

1) The plots are very
straightforward.

Obviously, I just mentioned this, but this is SHIELD's biggest problem. The writing
team is playing it safe — using all the old hour-long action-drama tropes with
virtually no deviation. I assume this is because the showrunners (and ABC) were
terrified that this show, based on Marvel's kajillion-dollar-grossing movie
universe, would somehow be too weird for TV viewers, and thus wanted to keep it
simple. Now that SHIELD is a success,
I expect — or at least hope — for this to improve considerably next season.

2) It tries to have
too many things both ways.

Agents of SHIELD
really wants SHIELD to be this awesome, crusading force for peace and justice
in the world, but occasionally, like tonight, it also wants it to be a slightly sinister bureaucracy capable of
throwing away lives for its goals. It wants Coulson to be to consummate company
man, but it also wants him to angst about… something. It wants Coulson's team
to be the best of the best, an elite squad among elites, but it also wants four
of the members to be young and shockingly inexperienced with pretty much
everything SHIELD does. There's this weird contradiction in the show's
fundamentals, and it's very offputting — especially when you're supposed to
pretend the most powerful and resourced organization in the world would one
send two guys to destroy a doomsday device without any resources whatsoever.

3) It's trying too
hard.

Speaking of limitations, by trying so hard to be a
mini-Marvel movie, I think Agents of
SHIELD does itself more harm than good. Specifically: Obviously the show has
a certain amount of money; it needs those to make sets, do effects and add CG —
and the show wants to add a lot of all of these, because it wants to be
exciting and it wants to feel as epic as movie. But there's just not enough
money. So we'll get awesome sets like The Hub, but then horrible CG like Smmons
fishing the data capsule out of that agent's nose at the beginning of the
episode. It can do a pretty good effect, like Fitz's "window" into the
warehouse, but then there's a glaringly obvious greenscreen in the tundra in
the coldmopen. Look, I don't have a solution for this, other than for ABC to
give them more money (which it may do, now that the show has proven itself to
not be a debacle). All I know if that sometimes the show looks so good it makes
the not-good parts really stand out.

4) There are no real stakes.

If I had one complaint about this show, it's that despite
the team ostensibly saving the world every week, it still feels small. We're firmly in case-of-the-week
territory here, not unusual for a season one of any TV show, but it's hard to
feel like these guys are doing any real good when they're relegated to
investigating floating firefighters or sneaking into warehouses each week. The
show needs an overarching plot, and most of all, it needs some real bad guys. I
know there's the Project Centipede people, but they've been such a non-factor I
had to look up their name when typing this, because I had forgotten it, because
they've done almost nothing. Give the team something substantial to fight
against — something they can't clear up in a week. It'll help
considerably.

None of these problems are unfixable, and generally, many of
these things get solved over time as showrunners get better at their jobs,
people discover what works and what doesn't, and a show builds its
relationships and mythology. Right now, I actually am not that worried that
this is as good as Agents of SHIELD
is going to get.

And besides, in the end, I did actually like the episode, and here's why: for the first time
ever, Agents of SHIELD made me laugh.
I chuckled at Fitz's rage about his lost sandwich, I chuckled again at Fitz's
freaking out when watching the "guard" attack the other guards through his
window thing even though the joke was completely obvious, and I laughed out
loud at Simmons' attempt to bamboozle Agent Sitwell, as well as Skye's futile
attempts to coach her. The show is still trying too hard to be funny, but more
jokes hit tonight and not, and it carried the episode for me. Hell, I'm even
starting to like Ward now that he's not a total ass and was pretty
understanding with Fitz even when Fitz was being a liability. He and Fitz made
an unexpectedly good pairing, too. and I think that's a very good sign.

Obviously, Agents of
SHIELD still has a lot of room for improvement, but despite the ho-hum plot
in "The Hub," I still think this episode is proof that the show is getting
better… slowly, but better. The tragedy is that Agents of SHIELD could add AIM and MODOK next week, and instantly be
the greatest show in television, even if half of it was devoted to Skye talking
to herself out loud at a computer.

Assorted Musings:

Next week is set after the events of Thor: The Dark World. Y'all best see the movie before then.

I forgot to mention that apparently there's a big mystery
with Skye's parents and we learned that a SHIELD agent dropped her off at an orphanage
when she was a baby, but also whatever the deal is Coulson is still keeping it
a secret even after the "let's share information with friends" moral of the episode.
I failed to mention this because I don't care.

Seriously, the show has done nothing to make me care about
Skye's mystery at all. Oh, she was dropped off by a SHIELD agent who was
murdered? Do I know the agent? Do I know how she died or who killed her? No?
Then I don't care. The only person interested in this mystery is Skye, and Skye
still isn't likable enough for the audience to give a shit about her
back-story.

Speaking of the "Why does SHIELD seem kind of crappy at
its job sometimes?" thing, was there a reason the gigantic agency known as
SHIELD needed to drop off Ward and Fitz in a different county? With no vehicle
to cross the border?

I was getting ready to savage the episode when I thought
the Ward and Fitz had been saved — and thus the world — by the lights in the
Russian bar going out at just the right second. When I learned Fitz had
triggered a mini-EMP to cause it, I knew it was going to be okay, and he wasn't
going to be pure bumbling comic relief for the episode.

Hey, it's Agent Sitwell from the "Item 47" short!

"He's acting like a robot version of himself!" Okay,
sports fans: Is Agents of SHIELD
dropping things like this as subtle hints about the secret of Agent Coulson's resurrection
for mass audiences who have no idea what an LMD is, or are they putting them in
there just to fuck with nerds? Discuss.